By Yas Ocampo
DAVAO CITY -- After two years, the Land Transportation Office 11 has begun distributing the long-delayed vehicle plates.
Workers start to make new car plates for newly registered vehicles at the newly inaugurated Plate Making Plant at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) Main office in Quezon City Tuesday in order to address the backlog and ensure more efficient delivery of vehicle license plates. (ALVIN KASIBAN / MANILA BULLETIN)
Officials distributed the plates Thursday, with Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio as the guest of honor at the regional office.
Regional Director Gomer Dy, in an interview, said that the Central Office is now printing the plates with those plates registered on July 2016 now ready for distribution for the entire month.
Dy said that the LTO is scheduled to distribute around 200 plates every week for the whole month, with around 800 motor vehicles registered in July 2016.
These are all plates for four-wheeled vehicles, as the agency has decided to pause the printing of motorcycle plates.
Congress is still deliberating a law amending the required plates on motorcycles to either a larger, more visible format or the addition of another plate for the motorcycles.
The LTO has around 1,600 vehicle plates for July and August ready for distribution by batch, depending on a schedule.
The plates for September and October are already being printed by the Central Office, Dy said, adding that the agency is working double time to start releasing the plates.
"Hopefully by first quarter of 2019 complete na ang backlog, depende sa production," he said.
The owner of the plates can personally claim the license by bringing the original official receipt (OR) and certificate of registration (CR).
The LTO needs the document as the property officer needs to mark the document with the plate number.
Photocopies are discouraged, as these can be faked, Dy said.
So far, the LTO here said the backlog for the 2016 plates art around 5,000 plates, with an average 100 new units of motor vehicles being registered at the agency.
For 2017, the agency recorded 14,391 motor vehicles registered.
To date, from January to June, the LTO has registered 7,195 motor vehicles registered, with a total of 24,971 motor vehicles for the three years as of June 2018.